Applications for RSE Cloud Computing Awards with Microsoft now open

It is a privilege to announce the Research Software Engineering Cloud Computing Awards at the RSE 2017 conference! It is clear that cloud computing is helping researchers worldwide, across all disciplines, and it is a key enabler for AI and machine learning at scale. With these awards, Microsoft wants to empower RSEs to explore, educate and extend cloud computing for researchers. The goal is to create a community bridging researchers, university stakeholders, regional teams, and national services, to better understand how Microsoft Azure can enable better, faster and more reproducible research in everyday use.

We are looking for people who are passionate about exploring how cloud computing can be used in research, sharing their experiences with cloud computing, and advocating best practice in their research domain, institution, and/or community. The awards are flexible and will support training, workshops, cloud computing prototype designs and research solutions, and publication of open-source code and frameworks for Microsoft Azure. We are particularly interested in RSEs using AI, machine learning, and data science in their projects.

Each award provides £2000 GBP for education, outreach, and implementation of research solutions using the Microsoft Cloud. This is complemented by 12 months of Microsoft Azure credits at $250 USD per month, for one year. Awardees will be able to use the title RSE Cloud Computing Fellow.

Apply now!

Timeline

7 September 2017 (at 12.30): Applications open

20 October 2017: registration closes

1 November 2017: Fellowship starts

31 October 2018: Fellowship ends

More about the awards

We welcome applicants from a variety of career stages who demonstrate a passion for their area, the ability to communicate ideas effectively, and a real interest in the role of cloud computing in research. Fellows are empowered to talk about Microsoft Azure in their research domain to a wider audience, network with others who share a passion for cloud computing in research, and learn key skills that benefit them and their collaborators. ​

Researchers using Microsoft Azure

Researchers are using Azure across many domains, letting them spend more time on their research, providing all the computing they need, exactly when they need it. Whether it’s a computer with more memory, a cluster with thousands of cores, a big data platform, an internet of things solution, or open-source machine learning at scale, you can achieve more using the cloud.

The Azure 4 Research Blog explains what, why, and how cloud computing can accelerate your research. You can also stay up to date through the Microsoft Azure blog. Examples from around the world in genomics, engineering, environmental science, physics, urban analytics, and healthcare include: